State v. LaFountain

901 N.W.2d 441, 2017 WL 3687472, 2017 Minn. App. LEXIS 105
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedAugust 28, 2017
DocketA16-1754
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 901 N.W.2d 441 (State v. LaFountain) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. LaFountain, 901 N.W.2d 441, 2017 WL 3687472, 2017 Minn. App. LEXIS 105 (Mich. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION

JESSON, Judge

Appellant Adam LaFountain appeals his felony conviction, arguing that the requirement of the Minnesota predatory-offender-registration statute that he inform law enforcement of his address change violates his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Because the predatory-offender-registration act is not a penal statute, it does not implicate the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. Further, because LaFountain’s statements to the investigator were made when he was not in custody, they are not covered within the scope of that privilege. We therefore affirm.

FACTS

LaFountain, who was convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2006, was required to register as a predatory offender under Minnesota law. See Minn. Stat. § 243.166, subd. lb(a)(l)(iii). He completed the necessary registration paperwork at that time. On October 15, 2015, however, LaFountain, who had a history of violating conditions of release, was convicted of felony failure to register. See id., subd. 5(a). He received a 24-month stayed sentence and was required to continue to fulfill registration requirements.

Shortly thereafter, on November 9, 2015, Fillmore County sheriffs deputies confirmed with LaFountain’s former landlord that, three weeks earlier, he had moved from the address he had listed on the predatory-offender registry. A deputy visited LaFountain’s employer listed on the registry and learned that LaFountain [444]*444had not been employed there for two weeks.

On November 17, 2015, LaFountain entered the law enforcement center in Preston and told a sheriffs investigator that he needed to update his predatory-offender-registration information. LaFountain accompanied the investigator to a computer to access the registry. Examining the dates in the system, the investigator noticed that LaFountain appeared to have moved from his listed address more than a few days earlier. He mentioned this to LaFountain, who responded that he had beeh evicted from that address and was supposed to leave on October 16, but he still had some items there and had not movéd until four or five days' earlier. The investigator told LaFountain that a report had been forwarded to the county attorney’s office, based on possible noncompliance with registration due to his failure to notify law enforcement of his address change at least five days before moving to that address. See Minn. Stat. § 243.166, subd. 3(b).

The state charged LaFountain with violating the predatory-offender-registration statute by failing to timely notify law enforcement of his change of address. La-Fountain moved to suppress evidence of his statements on his predatory-offender-registration paperwork to the investigator, arguing that they were made in violation of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

At an evidentiary hearing on the motion, the investigator testified that LaFountain volunteered that he knew that he was supposed to change his address in the system at least five days before moving to a new address. The investigator did not Mirandize LaFountain because no arrest was made. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444-45, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1612, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966).

LaFountain testified that he had provided his new address because it was “either supply the. information or be charged criminally.” He acknowledged.that'he understood that, if he did not register, he could be charged with felony failure to register. He testified that “life doesn’t happen by the book withfin] five days,” and he believed he was doing the' right thing by coming in to update his registration.

The district court issued an order denying the motion-to suppress. The district court held that LaFountain’s statements in his Bureau-of Criminal Apprehension file acknowledging that he understood the registration requirement, as well as his statements to the investigator, did not violate his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The district court concluded that the predatory-offender-registration statute was civil and regulatory, rather than penal, so that the two elements required for the Fifth Amendment to apply—compulsion and incrimination— were not present, and that LaFountain’s statements were not protected by the Fifth Amendment.

After LaFountain waived his right to a jury trial, the district court found him guilty of failure to register as a predatory offender and sentenced him to a presumptive 30-month sentence. This appeal follows.

ISSUES-

I. Is the predatory-offender-registration statute a civil and regulatory , statute, rather than a penal statute, so .that LaFountain’s statements relating to its registration requirements do not give rise to a Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination?
II. Are LaFountain’s out-of-custody statements made to the investigator [445]*445protected by a Fifth Amendment privilege?

ANALYSIS

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution guards against self-incrimination. It provides that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” U.S. Const. Amend. V; see also Minn. Const. art. I, § 7 (providing the same protection against self-incrimination). As the Supreme Court explained, the government must establish guilt “by evidence independently and freely secured, a'nd may not by coercion prove a charge against an accused out of his own mouth.” Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 8, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 1493, 12 L.Ed.2d 653 (1964). As a result, the Fifth Amendment privilege is the “essential mainstay” of the American system of criminal prosecution. Id. at 7, 84 S.Ct. at 1493. But the privilege only applies in a “criminal case.” Id. (quotation omitted).

I. The predatory-offender-registration statute is not penal in nature.

Here, LaFountain argues that Minnesota Statutes section 243.166, which requires him to register certain information and to notify law enforcement at least five days before a change in his address, compels him to incriminate himself in violation of the Fifth Amendment. He argues that when he signed paperwork acknowledging the registration requirements and told the investigator that he had failed to timely notify law enforcement of his address change, he was compelled to provide information that incriminated him in a criminal proceeding. See Minn. Stat. § 243.166, subds. 4(a), 3(b).

But the question is not whether LaFountain’s answers incriminated him in a criminal proceeding. Rather, the question is whether the statute that requires the answers—the predatory-offender-registration statute—is penal in nature. Whether a statute is civil or punitive in nature involves an issue of statutory construction. Seling v. Young, 531 U.S. 250, 261, 121 S.Ct. 727, 734, 148 L.Ed.2d 734 (2001). Statutory interpretation presents a question of law, which this court reviews de novo. Boutin v. LaFleur, 591 N.W.2d 711, 714 (Minn. 1999).

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Bluebook (online)
901 N.W.2d 441, 2017 WL 3687472, 2017 Minn. App. LEXIS 105, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lafountain-minnctapp-2017.